Friday, May 6, 2016

Guaiacan Commandoes

Guaiacan is a fairly sparsely
populated planet in the Goschvac system. It is a warm and wet world and slightly
larger than most inhabited worlds of the Imperium. Vast forests of very dense
hardwoods cover most of the surface that isn’t open water. The wood of these
trees is sought after throughout the Imperium – both for it’s beauty and it’s
strength and durability. Most of the population is involved in the forestry
industry in one way or another.

Guaiacan is far from the
troubled spots of the Imperium and has known nothing but tranquil peace for
millennia. That does not mean they are unaware of their extreme good fortune
and the cost of maintaining this undisturbed existence. Though the total
population has been maintained in the tens of millions, every generation
Guaiacan tithes a regiment of 10,000 of it’s best to the Astra Militarum.

The Guiacan excel at Light
Infantry, Reconnaissance and Commando raiding tactics – especially in jungle or
forest environments. They are capable of operating at length behind enemy lines
for extended periods. Imperial commanders knowledgeable of these assets have
used them to great affect in many campaigns on forest or jungle worlds to
regions. Guaiacan regiments under command of those who are ignorant of their
particular skill and see only their numbers have almost always met with
inglorious, tragic ends, fed into the slaughter in pointless wave attacks.

The Regiments are organized into
10 “Commandos” of approximately 1000 soldiers each. #1 Commando is the
Headquarters and Support Commando, containing the Regiment’s command and
signals, supply, and medical staff. #2-#7 Commando are the “Fighting” Commandoes
that do the bulk of the work “at the sharp end”. The “Fighting” Commandos are divided
into ten squadrons of approximately 100 soldiers, which are divided into Troops
of varying sizes, depending on their combat roles. #8-#10 are Reserve commandos
made up of the younger members of the Regiment – those recruited just before
the Tithing – which will ultimately supply replacements to the Fighting
Commandos as they suffer losses.

The Fighitng Commandos are largely
independent units with organiccombat support elements. Within the Commandos,
organizations are largely administrative as the Guaiacan are always very
adaptable and have a highly flexible command structure and will switch elements
about depending on the nature of the operations.

The Guaiacan are deeply
religious people and their faith in the Emperor is unwavering. They are often
accompanied in battle byMinistorium Priests. The figures are actually Black Tree Design Dark Age
Monks convertedwith some gen-u-ine
GW Imperial Guard bitz. (The Codex says I can have 3 @ 25… I have four… so 100
points)

Commando Sergeant Anders (as Sly
Marbo)

(Actually in the latest Astra
Militarum Codex Sly Marbo has been deleted from the force options… but I still
have the figure – and the previous Imperial Guard Codex – so I might field him
for giggles from time to time. Unfortunately I cannot LOCATE that older Codex
at this time, so I’m not entirely sure how ).

I have a number of other
Headquarter elements I could add to the force that aren’t pictured here…
Commissars, Regimental Advisors (Astropath, Master of Ordinance, Officer of the
Fleet), Primaris Psyker, Enginseers, etc… They are usually not Guaiacan (and
some of them aren’t painted yet… and as the jungle fighters aren’t the only
Imperial Guard I have, those that have been painted are generally painted in a
more generic scheme rather than the jungle camouflage)

Troops

Veteran Commando Section –independent
squads of some of the more experienced Commandos often given taskings of their
own under direct control of the Company Commander.

10 Veteran Guardsmenplus two grenade Launchers and a Heavy
Weapons Team with Lascannon.
(90 points)

This squad is made up of older "Rogue Trader" era Guardsmen I happen to have kicking around for 25+ years... They have all been stripped of their original paint-jobs and repainted in recent years.

One of the Guardsman/Commandos
in this section is a Copplestone
Castings Future War Trooper that’s been converted – There just aren’t
enough female Guardsmen out there so I had to make a few of my own…

Number Three (Demolition)
Section

3 Guardsman/Commando with Lasguns

3 Guardsman/Commando with
Lasguns and Demolition Charges

(90 points)

Number Four (Light Anti-Armour)
Section

3 Guardsman/Commando with
Lasguns

2 Guardsman/Commando with Plasma
Guns

1 Guardsman/Commando with Melta
Gun

(70 points)

Number Two (Assault) Troop

Number Two (Assault) Troop
Command Section

Troop Commander with Power First
and Bolt Gun

Guardsman/Commando with Heavy
Flamer

Guardsman/Commando with Sniper
Rifle

Guardsman/Commando Heavy Weapons
Team with Lascannon

(88 points)

Number One Commando Section

Commando Sergeant with Laspistol
and Chainsword (Close Combat Weapon)

6 Guardsman/Commando with
Lasguns

1 Guardsman/Commando with
Grenade Launcher

1 Guardsman/Commando Heavy
Weapons Team with Missile Launcher

(71 points)

Again, one of the
Guardsman/Commandos in this section is a Copplestone
Castings Future War Trooper that’s been converted.

Reserve Troops aren’t part of
regular commando forces. The Reserve Commandos are made up of the younger, less
experienced members of the Regiment that were likely recruited just before the
Tithing. They are generally only fielded as part of a Commando force when the
opposition is expected to be light, in order to give the Reserve Commando
members some actual combat experience, or when the situation is desperate and
all available bodies are needed to be thrown into the fray!

They are generally more lightly
armed and often carry a locally produced (on Guaiacan)older pattern Lasgun.

The figures are mostly old
I-Kore Void figures that were among the first of all these “Jungle Fighter”
figures I picked up – back when I was using them in a Savage Worlds campaign as
Morgan’s Mauraders – a rival mercenary unit that the players force often ended
up being hired by their opponents.

Number Four (Reserve) Troop
Command Section

Troop Commander with Power First
and Laspistol

2 Guardsman/Commando with
Laspistols

Guardsman/Commando Heavy Weapons
Team with Mortar

(35 points)

Number One (Reserve) Commando
Section

Commando Sergeant with Laspistol
and Close Combat Weapon

9 Guardsman/Commando with
Lasguns

1 Guardsman/Commando with Flamer

(55 points)

Number Two (Reserve) Commando
Section

Commando Sergeant with Laspistol
and Close Combat Weapon

9 Guardsman/Commando with
Lasguns

1 Guardsman/Commando with Flamer

(55 points)

Elites

Elements of Abhuman REgiments are often semi-permanently attached to the Guaiacan Regiments to offer some support and tactical flexibility.

Ogryn Section – an attached
squad of abhumans.

Ogryn Bone ‘Ed with 3 Ogryn (170
points)

Ratling Sniper Section – another
attached squad of abhumans

5 Ratling Snipers (50 Points)

Fast Attack

Scout Sentinel (and a dismounted
Vehicle Crewman)

(35 points)

I have a second Sentinel to build at some point... but that's not going to be any time this year, so I thought I'd go ahead and post pictures of the "Complete Force" without it...

Extras

These are a few spare/left-over
figures I have. If I decided to use vox casters I could add these to the
Company or Troop Command section in place of on of the special weapon
Guardsmen…?

So it looks like in total I
could field up to 1795 points with ALL of the above elements. If I were going for maximum
points I could also include a commissar (+25 points), Regimental Advisors
(Astropath +25 Points, Master of Ordinance + 20 points, Officer of the Fleet +
20 points), a Primaris Psyker (+50-75 points, depending of level of Mastery),
an Enginseer (+40 points). I could also give all of the Missile Teams Flakk
Missiles (@10 points each) and give Melta Bombs to most leaders (@5 points
each). This could easily tip me over 2000 points...

The Boy is nearing completion of his Ork Force and the Girl
occasionally paints a few Eldar (she recently picked up a troop of Harlequins
and will likely get to painting those soon-sih). When they complete their
forces I’ll post some pictures of them.

2 comments:

Simply wonderful Tim! I love the fact there's not a horrible plastic one amongst them. The first edition ogryn is rather fine too and I keep meaning to get some of those myself. Really like the use of HW crew for the sniper spotters - wish I'd thought of that!

The downside of all metal is, if you look close, 80% of then are of one of three poses... Hopefully no one's looking that close though!

I got a PILE of spare heavy weapons crews in a lot off ebay - in almost every section there's a spare #2 from a Missile Launcher team - and as you noticed I had a couple extra kneeling pointing guys (not sure which weapon they were supposed to crew...?) I added binoculars and called them spotters.

Actually in February a friend gave me a sprue of the plastic Catachans... I thought I might get out the green stuff and try make some casualty markers out of them at some point...